Raijintek Atlas Micro-ATX Mid-Tower At Computex

Editor's Note: While Computex took place last week and all of the news announcements are behind us, we're still sorting through hundreds of in-person meetings and demonstrations, picking out just a few more of the most interesting items we saw up close.

There may be no end to the debate between the cooling and storage benefits of ATX full towers versus the convenience of a relatively compact mid-tower, but Raijintek thinks it can solve that debate with a simple question of its own: How many cards will you really use?

Merely 17.125" tall, the Atlas is the same height as your dad's old barely-a-mid-tower from the 1990s, yet it has room for up to five hard drives on 3.5" / 2.5" dual-format trays, CPU coolers up to 180 mm tall, two 310 mm graphics cards, top-mount and front-mount dual-fan radiators, or even a 200 mm intake fan.

The front-panel fan space is so large that Raijintek is even investigating--at our suggestion--a source for true 240 mm square radiators. That is, as opposed to the 120 x 240 radiators that it's already confirmed will fit.

Unlike smaller cubes, the Atlas allows motherboard tray removal from the sides to ease access to the screws and connectors of the motherboard and CPU cooler.

Micro ATX is the trick to putting all this capability in a mid-sized shell, and yes, the market offers many SLI-capable Micro ATX boards to choose from. Raijintek even added a fifth slot so that builders can use double-slot graphics cooling with the card mounted in the motherboard's fourth slot. And if SLI isn't your thing, you'll still have room for big graphics plus two cards or four single-slot cards.

Before Raijintek can convince enthusiasts that this could be their perfect solution, many enthusiasts will need to take a closer look at what the Micro ATX form factor can offer. You'll have a little time to read some motherboard reviews, as Raijintek is still finalizing US Distribution agreements with a delivery target of July-August.